Kurtág 100
18–20 February 2026
In February 2026, Müpa will celebrate the 100th birthday of György Kurtág, the living legend of Hungarian contemporary music, with a major series of events. Three days, four events – a film screening, a panel discussion, and, between the concerts, the world premiere of his latest opera – will trace the composer’s unparalleled oeuvre.
The series begins on February 18 with the documentary film Kurtág Fragments. Director Dénes Nagy followed the composer’s daily life over four years. The film is an intimate portrait featuring renowned performers such as Víkingur Ólafsson, Pierre Laurent Aimard, Benjamin Appl, and Steven Isserlis. The screening will be followed by an English-language panel discussion with Dénes Nagy, Ólafsson, Aimard, and Appl, moderated by Gergely Fazekas, who also served as the film’s music consultant.
On February 19, a celebratory concert will present landmark orchestral works from Kurtág’s oeuvre, performed by Ólafsson, István Várdai, and the Danubia Orchestra conducted by Markus Stenz. The program, spanning intimate miniatures to the monumental Stele, also evokes the deep connection between Kurtág and Bach.
The festival concludes on the following day with Keller András and his orchestra, Concerto Budapest. In a concert featuring outstanding soloists (Aimard, Máté Szűcs and László Fenyő), the centenarian master’s art enters into dialogue with music of earlier eras, that of Beethoven and Bartók. The highlight of the evening is a world premiere: the one-act opera Die Stechardin, performed for the first time at Müpa with Maria Husman in the solo role. This sensitive monodrama is the otherworldly monologue of the young lover of the 18th-century German polymath G. C. Lichtenberg, who died prematurely.
The events are taking place as part of the Kurtág 100 programme series organised by the BMC and presented by Müpa Budapest.
